Thursday, 29 May 2014

A Review of 'Always Sometimes Monsters'

By Owen Jones (That bloke under your bed)

Morality’s a tricky one, because there’s always more to it
than you think at first. So many factors affect how we make decisions so
that judging someone for their actions is impossible. Always Sometimes Monsters
is a game that attempts to portray this, yet like morality it’s tricky to judge
Always Sometimes Monsters. Yet judge it I shall, or at least attempt to, after
this trailer of course:

I’m in two minds about Always Sometimes Monsters and its
various elements. Take for instance the character creation (or rather choosing)
where you decide who you want to play as from a room filled with people. Yet it
doesn’t tell you that you’re choosing which character to play as, instead
telling you you’re deciding who to drink with. On the one hand this seems like
a nice way of choosing your gender, race and even sexuality, but it doesn’t
tell you this clearly. Sure, you can go back and chose again, but that kind of defies the point of the section.

And it does something similar with the decision making.
Instead of declaring that you’re making a decision it tries to hide them, and
whilst this is admirable it meant that I ended up following a path that I
didn’t particularly want to. Starting a conversation would often mean I would
be taken to a new location and path, and although I could leave it either didn’t tell me
I could do so or offered the choice at a time that felt wrong. I really wished
I could have protested more or been given a dialogue option that simply said
‘No’. It’s incredibly infuriating when the game makes a big deal out of
something that could be explained or avoided by a simple sentence, yet that
sentence wasn’t available. Sure, this is a problem in all games, but Always
Sometimes Monsters made me painfully aware of that fact.

The distinction between what I wanted my character to do
and what they actually did was a problem for me as they made some bold statements or
decisions that I didn't feel that I had been given any choice in. Perhaps this is why I
failed to sympathise with my character, in fact I struggled to become
emotionally invested in the story other than through frustration. Looking back I
just felt a sort of blank as the events took place, which is really detrimental
to what the game was trying to achieve.

I’m also not entirely certain what to make of the working mechanic
in the game. Always Sometimes Monsters uses mini games to simulate things like
work, hacking and boxing (yes there’s boxing and it’s so dull I was very
tempted to take the clearly labelled ‘bad’ decision instead of it). The mini
games are incredibly dull, and whilst this serves the purpose of expressing how
mundane manual labour is it’s still incredibly dull and often purposeless.

And this means money is in abundance as long as you’re
prepared to suffer the mini games, which kind of ruins the simulation of
desperation it’s also trying to create. It’s also worth bearing in mind that
some of these sections are plot centric or in order for the day to progress you
might have to take part in these mini games.

The game also appears to be in two minds about itself.
Sometimes it tries to create a feeling of desperation and hopelessness, while
also attempting humour. It often is funny, but some attempts felt weak and I
felt occasionally sacrificed what the game was trying to achieve. These
conflicting atmospheres weren’t complimentary and I found stopped me from
engaging or becoming immersed in the game.

It’s a shame because the writing is mostly pretty okay; it’s
just that it could be uninteresting or uninspired. The characters were
never realistic enough for me to care a great deal, and what they had to say
often bored me.

The third section of the game was just tedious and I was
struggling to carry on. It was worth it though, because the ending freed itself
from the repetitive structure the rest of the game was built around, but even
here melodrama undermined the more sincere parts of the story. It’s when the game concentrated on the plot focused
parts it was far better than in the mechanical parts, and I could really feel that whilst playing the game. Dream sequences provided
the best of these and gave motivation for me to continue playing, although I
did struggle to reach the end.

The review might come across as particularly negative, which
I feel is unfair to Always Sometimes Monsters. The fact that I gave up around
10 hours during a busy period shows that it was bearable, just not as enjoyable or entertaining as I felt it tried to be. It's attempts to grasp issues that aren't often covered in video games is really admirable, it just presented them in a way that seemed quite dull or inconsequential.

It’s ambitious
in its concept, and when it pulls it off it’s great, it’s just that these
moments should have been far more common. I don’t think it’s too expensive at £6-£7, this seems to be a relatively modest price. The 8-10 hour
game time feels drawn out however and although it may be ultimately worthwhile it’s a
struggle to complete in areas.